Transport Properties of Iron-nickel Ferrites

Abstract

The mechanism of electrical conduction in the magnetic semiconductors Ni <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</inf> Fe <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3−x</inf> O <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</inf> with 0.6 < x ≤ 1 was investigated. The electrical properties of these compounds are extremely sensitive to the presence of α-Fe <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> O <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> as a second phase. The exponential temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity ρ and the temperature-independent thermoelectric power θ are in good agreement with an electron-hopping model. The electrical conduction occurs by thermally activated electron hopping between octahedral Fe <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2+</sup> and Fe <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3+</sup> ions with an activation energy q. The values of ρ, q and θ depend on the Fe <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2+</sup> concentration only, and are not sensitive to small deviations from stoichiometry due to the presence of cation or anion vacancies.